I agree. Many current riders seem to think that all tires should be inflated to at least 120 psi. Just bought a pristine 1962 all-chrome Schwinn Superior fron CR member Tom Sanders. The quite possibly original Goodyear 27 x 1 1/4 tires (How long has it been since Goodyear made road bike tires?) are marked with a recommended 50 psi pressure. They ride pretty well at that pressure, too.
Regards,
Jerry Moos,
Big Spring, TX
Chuck Schmidt <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net> wrote:
On Jun 1, 2007, at 12:21 PM, Jan Heine wrote:
> Of course, it also depends on your tire choice. I suspect that a 20
> mm tire at 155 psi puts more stresses on the bike than a 37 mm tire
> at 55 psi - yes, those are the recommended pressures for a 220 lb.
> rider'/bike combo's rear wheel! (The next Bicycle Quarterly has a
> chart on how to achieve the same tire deflection for various tire
> widths and rider/bike weights. It's interesting - as Frank Berto
> always has pointed out, most riders underinflate narrow tires and
> overinflate wide tires.)
Great point Jan!
I'm always surprised that riders don't experiment with their tire pressures to any degree. It so easy to try different pressures if you are pumping up your tires for every ride anyway. It's really not a case of "if some is good, more is better"...
Chuck Schmidt
South Pasadena, CA USA